novelraw Chapter 136: Soil Crisis
Chapter 136: Soil Crisis
Wasteland. The name said it all. It was a world where the environment that sustained human life had been completely destroyed. The air, water, and soil were all contaminated. Plants and animals were all dead, their habitats ruined. Survivors had to eke out a meager existence in such conditions, where there was no civilization, no morality, no good or evil, no right or wrong...
In the wasteland, there was only survival.
"Ronan, do you think there’s any land out there that hasn’t been eroded by the acid rain?"
Ronan Kendrick looked up at her and nodded gently. "There has to be."
"Is there really?"
"I believe there is."
Evelyn Ford curled up under the blankets, listening to the PITTER-PATTER of the rain outside, and felt a despair unlike anything she had ever known.
’Does humanity even have a future without soil and water?’
’The environment has been so brutally savaged, and the air is full of poison. Will we start to mutate? Will the children born from now on be deformed? Disfigured?’
「The next day」
Evelyn Ford got out of bed and glanced out the window. The acid rain was still drizzling down. Black puddles corroded the building’s walls. Mina and Lola were huddled under the bed. Small animals have the keenest instincts for danger, and seeing them so panicked, their fur standing on end, was both pitiful and heartbreaking.
Officer Graham and Quincy got into full gear, planning to head to the first floor to find a room that hadn’t been breached by the rain. Unfortunately, the acid runoff had already flooded the corner of the stairwell. The two had no choice but to give up and return, looking utterly defeated.
"I’m guessing this acid rain will stop in ten-odd days, tops. Don’t risk it. Getting caught in it is no joke. Once it’s over, we can go dig up soil from The Undercity."
Quincy sighed. "I guess that’s our only option. When we went out just now, I was bundled up like a mummy, but my clothes still got splashed with a few drops. Look, it ate right through a huge patch in an instant."
’If that had been his skin...’ He couldn’t even imagine the consequences.
The other residents in the building weren’t faring well either, but at least no one had died yet. It seemed the toxic fog, while poisonous, wasn’t lethal.
Even though this was an apartment building, not many people had food reserves. Most were starving, and with the power and water now cut, the panic only intensified.
Fortunately, most people had some water stored, or life would be even more unbearable.
Evelyn Ford could also hear the panicked shrieks of chickens, ducks, and geese coming from the base’s new breeding farm. The young animals, so painstakingly raised and reintroduced, were facing annihilation once again.
「On the morning of the third day」
The concrete below the building was eaten through by the acid rain. The pooled water broke through the cement layer, seeped into the soil, and finally merged with the groundwater.
The eroded surface was now exposed. It looked like a honeycomb, riddled with a dense network of holes.
The corroded ground steamed and gave off a thick fog, leaving behind a heavy layer of black slime. A rancid, sour stench permeated every corner of the base.
Evelyn Ford stared at the exterior wall of the neighboring building through her binoculars. The section corroded by the standing water looked like it had been weathered for millennia, so fragile it might crumble at the slightest touch.
The only thing that could withstand the acid rain’s corrosive power was glass. Below, a fallen pane of glass was shattered, but otherwise undamaged.
The nearby buildings had also changed. Their once-clean exterior walls were now stained black by the acid rain. The corners of the rooftops, corroded and unstable, came crashing down with a BANG at the slightest gust of wind.
By afternoon, a flash of purple lightning was followed by a sudden clap of thunder. The acid rain grew heavier, and with each RUMBLE of thunder, it came down in sheets. The ground SIZZLED, releasing plumes of white smoke.
Evelyn Ford glanced at her thermometer; the temperature was holding steady at thirty degrees.
With the pipes destroyed, the bathroom had long been unusable. Fearing the acid rain might backflow into her apartment, Evelyn Ford had filled the squat toilet with cement.
「On the fourth day」
People started dying in the neighboring Building 9. The sounds of weeping, complaining, and cursing found their way into everyone’s ears.
Some started robbing their neighbors under the cover of darkness. One robber was shoved out of a window. He didn’t die from the fall. Instead, he got stuck in the black slime below, unable to move. As the acid rain fell, he was quickly corroded to death.
Roy Henderson and Owen Chapman were also targeted, but fortunately, Officer Graham discovered the plot in time.
The man lived next door to Officer Graham and used to work for The Hunting Squad. He had an elderly mother and a young son with him. When caught, he fell to his knees, repenting and begging for forgiveness. His mother and son knelt beside him, weeping and pleading with Officer Graham to spare him.
Officer Graham gave him a beating, then let him go.
As the days dragged on, tensions in the building mounted. Robberies became a daily occurrence. Someone, knowing Evelyn Ford lived alone, tried to pry her door open, only to be caught red-handed by Ronan Kendrick.
Ronan Kendrick was ruthless. Though he remembered Evelyn’s warning not to kill anyone—there were too many people in the building—he didn’t hold back. The would-be burglar was beaten severely.
After one or two such incidents, everyone learned that Ronan Kendrick was brutal and not to be provoked. No one dared to try their luck again.
「On the fifth day」
The thunder and lightning finally ceased, and the acid rain dwindled to a drizzle. However, the black slime left behind by the corrosion would now spontaneously combust. Flames erupted from the ground, and when the rain fell on them, the fire would explode like it had been doused in gasoline, FIZZLING and SPUTTERING with a shower of sparks.
Evelyn Ford had given up. She lay on her bed, motionless. Aside from getting up to eat, she spent nearly all her time lying still as a corpse.
Ronan Kendrick knew she was terrified, but he didn’t know how to comfort her. All he could do was sit by her bed and quietly keep her company.
"It’s the fifth day. All the acid water below has seeped into the soil."
Evelyn Ford ran a hand through her messy hair, her puffy eyes fixed on Ronan Kendrick.
"Will it stop?"
"It will."
Evelyn Ford’s lips twitched into a semblance of a smile. "Then how many days do you think it will take to stop?"
Ronan Kendrick glanced out the window and blinked. "Five more days at most."
Evelyn Ford sighed. "Let’s hope so."
「On the sixth day」
The acid rain grew heavier again. The drops were the size of quail eggs, and you could hear a loud THUD as they struck the glass.
「On the seventh day」
The acid rain let up again. The constant fluctuation was unnerving.
「On the morning of the eighth day」
The acid rain stopped. Just as everyone thought the crisis was finally over, it began pouring again, catching them completely off guard. It scared everyone so badly that no one dared venture out to check on the situation anymore.
「On the ninth day」
Evelyn Ford gazed outside quietly. The base looked like a post-war ruin. As far as she could see, there wasn’t a single undamaged patch of ground. The exterior walls of the apartment buildings were completely eaten away, and she suspected the foundations were now dangerously fragile.
「On the tenth day」
The acid rain stopped, but no one believed it was really over. The sky was a murky gray, with not a sliver of light to be seen. The ground below still steamed and was shrouded in a thick fog, with flames occasionally flaring up from the smaller corrosion pits.
An entire day passed, from morning until night, and the acid rain did not return. Only then did people finally believe it had truly stopped.
There was no joy on anyone’s face, only a deep, lingering fear and unease.